Sam Recommends: “The Moment” by Tame Impala

The release of Tame Impala’s Currents in July 2015 coincided with a pretty defining moment in my life.

Andy and I were just days away from a big (for us) move from our hometown in the Inland Empire to San Diego, putting a two hour drive between us and most of our friends and family.

This move was my idea, and I pushed hard for it. And by that I mean that I wasn’t taking no for an answer.

I had been unhappy with my various teaching jobs, the brutal commutes between three campuses, and the ever-present sense that I was doing nothing of consequence with my life. A San Diego address had always been an end goal, and, within a month, I was able to line up two new teaching jobs to justify the hasty relocation.

A week before the move, I made the drive from Riverside to San Diego to fill out some final paperwork for our new apartment. I was listening to Currents for the second or third time, and it wasn’t until “The Moment” came on as I was passing through Escondido that reality started to sink in.

This move was actually happening, and I had no way of knowing how it would all work out, or if I would end up regretting it. It was a moment of pure anxiety bordering on terror. But it was already too late to turn back, and I took a strange sense of comfort from that fact. And as the song continued on, I realized that psychedelic genius Kevin Parker was right: I couldn’t just spend my whole lifetime wondering. I’d have to trust in the moment and in myself.

That year ended up being one of the most challenging of our respective lives. But it was also one of the most productive and rewarding. We ended up leaving San Diego for Los Angeles exactly a year later, but we left better than we came.